Far appointment date for B1/B2 interview

[muradjamal]

I want to apply for a tourism visa (B1/B2) as a renew for my expired visa, but as for the current situation for the limited numbers of applicants that are allowed to be interviewed daily, the closest appointment (according to the appointment wait times page on the US embassy website) is 246 calendar days ahead from today (this is for the US consulate in Saudi Arabia). So I have two questions:

1) will my chances for my visa request to be denied high or low ? Giving that I visited the United States 4 times before, but Corona situation may let the embassy to only accept urgent cases but not those want to go for tourism.

2) there is a question in the DS-160 form: intended date of arrival ?
Is it valid to choose a date after 10 months from the date of filling the form ? I may need to choose such far date because as mentioned above the closest appointment date is about 8 months ahead from today.

Thanks in advance.

[rkk09]

Hi,
Please see my response below.
1. As you know, unless emergency travel purpose, embassies/consulates are not accepting appointments. Once they up for regular slots then you can try. But for now and for tourism purpose, its very hard to get the dates and approvals.
2. Yes you can mention the date when you actually have intention to travel to the USA.
Thanks

[muradjamal]

Thank you for your response, however, there are time slots available for regular appointments (non-emergency) but it's about 8 months ahead from today, they didn't mention anywhere on their website that they aren't accepting tourist appointments, but rather they process appointments in limited numbers.

[rkk09]

Hi,
If you could see the dates, Kindly go ahead and book the dates.. As you know, if you keep checking and see any near dates, you can reschedule the dates accordingly.
Thanks

[muradjamal]

thank you for your help ...